A year after Scott Von Thun recorded the highest grade-point average in Coronado High School history, Jenna Humble has set the bar even higher in becoming valedictorian for the Class of 2012.

Jenna Humble

Jasmine Kemble

Her GPA of 4.864 just did top her predecessor's 4.857. Both enrolled in numerous honors and advanced placement (AP) classes (in which a “weighted” extra point is added). So a non-honors class gives 4 points for an A, while honors and AP classes each give 5.
The same honors/AP arrangement applied to Jasmine Kemble, this year's salutatorian, who also had straight A's, but wound up with a GPA of “just” 4.85.
Breaking the GPA record was not without pain for Humble. It happened partly because she broke something else - literally. After fracturing a foot in a rugby game, she had to take a couple of PE classes on a pass/fail basis. Under another high school rule, pass grades don't affect GPA, so hers was not lowered as it
would have been if she'd gotten a “normal” A in those classes.
In any case, Humble is hardly spending time thinking about such matters. Interviewed this week, she didn't even realize she had bested the mark by Von Thun, a Boettcher scholar completing his first year at the Colorado School of Mines. She's had a stellar high school career on its own merits - mainly as a leader on
the school's regional champion robotics team and a member of the school's Wind Ensemble all four years - and is now looking ahead to studying aerospace engineering, specficially propulsion aspects of space flight, at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
She thanked her mother Judy for helping her, especially in math, where Humble took the highest-level courses Coronado offers, but thirsting for more, took six additional math credits at UCCS, funded by School District 11, under what's known as the “post-secondary option.” “She [her mother] is the person who
jump-started me into running out of math classes,” Humble laughed.
Kemble followed a track similar to Humble's, by focusing on both engineering and music. Also in robotics, Kemble was named CEO of the team in both her junior and senior years, in each case writing its business plan. Playing the viola in the school orchestra, she won All-State recognition three years.
Also like Humble, Kemble is setting her career goals toward engineering. She has been accepted at Stanford University, where she will study electrical engineering, with a long-range desire to get into digital electronics in a way that focuses on bio-medicine and possibly even prosthetics.
With her CEO experience, Kemble had also considered a business focus, but said she found, “I liked to work with my teammates, not just manage them.”
Asked about those who helped her the most, she named her father Ken and grandfather Bill. “They're always there for me,” she said. “It means a lot to me.”
Humble previously attended Pikes Peak Christian and Jenkins; Kemble went to Chipeta and Holmes.
Asked for their secrets for getting good grades, Humble replied, “Do your homework.” Kemble said, “I study, I work hard, and I don't hide that.”